Right to education

Each year in the world around 72 million children go without school. And for some reason nearly a billion people went into the 21st century unable to read or write their own names. This is especially striking to me because the 26th right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that everybody has the right to education.

The 26th right specifically says everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Even though this is said in the document less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

Education is looked at differently in every country. For example the United States views education as a mandatory thing that everybody views something everybody does. However in Ghana it is almost a privilege to go to school and get a proper education.

During my time learning about human rights I had the privilege of working with a partner school from Ghana. The school from Ghana was Mankranso JHS B. Two adult representatives came to our school in the United States and helped us understand the true meaning of human rights and how to be more aware of what is going on in other places around the world.